Bels' 8th is best National 12-stage in a decade as women just miss out on bronze
A new generation of Belgrave superstars made a statement of intent with an 8th place finish at the National 12-stage road relays while the women were just one place out of the medals in their 6-stage competition - their best ever return at the event.
Bels
Excitement was building in the days before Sutton Park because the Belgrave men have been quietly growing a great group of racers hungry for success at the national level. But it was stalwart Sam Gebreselassie, now on his third national 12-stage, who kicked us off - historically his best results here have come during the chaos of the first leg and he didn’t disappoint, bringing us back in 11th. Captain Conall McNally was disappointed that his run bled 9 places but that’s misleading so early in the race; we were still very much in contact with the competition.
Eoin Molloy followed with a strong long leg to keep us even at 20 as he begins his taper for London marathon in a fortnight. The corporate lawyer then notarised a wodge of documents for a teammate in the car park - get you a man who can do both.
Weekdays he’s a lawyer in the City, weekends he’s a lawyer on the bonnet of a 2006 Ford Transit.
New signing James Hancock has been looking very sharp in training at Battersea and on this evidence the TM was probably wrong to limit him to just a short leg: his run ate through eight places and was our quickest ever on this short leg course. What an entrance.
After a customary tempo parkrun earlier in the day, Ollie Garrod took over on leg 5 and passed a Hallamshire man to join a pack of runners in positions 8-11. The TM and a cooling down Molloy almost couldn’t believe their eyes to see us move from 20th to 11th all in the space of once reverse-lap jog. Then Ollie Jackson ran his best ever leg in our colours to keep us 11th before Ben Biggs, a hugely exciting new talent, moved us up to 9th before being passed by Kent’s Owen Hind (pictured) on the final uphill. Next, and on his first appearance at a club competition, Jack Elliss turned in our third fastest short leg of the day. It’s only his third ever Power of 10 entry (not a typo) so there’s huge potential here too.
Now to the business end. Four legs to go, and recent addition Max Heyden contributed our fastest long leg of he day, just as he did a fortnight ago at the Southern, thrilling the TM and Cottage training partner Sam Geb as he eased past Tonbridge star Keiran Reilly at the stone. Up into 8th! Charlie Wood is a yet another quality runner with not a lot of history in the sport and a very bright future if he can stay fit. Here he put an extra 16 seconds into the Tonbridge team behind us with his 15:41 - our second fastest short leg ever on the post-2015 course.
One of the most pleasing sights of the winter season was the return to our colours of Andy Fyfe, a prodigiously talented athlete now in the form of his life (29:18 for 10k just a month ago) thanks in no small part to his training group at Battersea that features teammates Gebreselassie, Biggs and Heyden. Here he faced the unenviable task of being chased down by national cross champion James Kingston, who thundered past to record the third fastest long leg of the day. But Andy’s form held strong and he took a Bedford runner to keep us steady in 8th with a leg only four seconds off Heyden’s, and exactly two minutes quicker than the last time he ran this leg for us in 2018.
Finally Sam Sommerville, positioned on the anchor leg because we know he’d ruin himself if there was more at stake, faced an isolated leg 12 with nobody in sight ahead or behind. His eventual clocking reflects nothing of his current excellent form, and much more of the extremely windy conditions. And a boozy weekend at the Isle of Man festival the week before, but we won’t mention that.
Our eighth place overall left us just two minutes outside the top 5 - and 7:36 off winners Leeds City, our best return since 2010, and with real promise looking to the six-stage in the autumn.
Results
1 Leeds City 4:11:28
2 Bristol & West 4:15:00
3 Highgate Harriers 4:15:34
…
8 Belgrave Harriers 4:19:04
Fastest long leg: Phil Sesemann (Leeds City) 25:27
Fastest short leg: Thomas Bridger (Cambridge & Coleridge) 15:04
Best Belgrave legs at Sutton Park (current course in use since 2016):
Belles
A wonderful day for the Belles at Sutton Park, writes Charlie Dickinson.
The Belles completed their excellent road and cross-country season with a memorable day at Sutton Park in the National 6-Stage Road Relays. For the first time, they finished with three complete teams, the only club in the country to manage the feat. The 'A' team finished in 4th place, their best ever result. The 'B' team were an excellent 12th, ahead of all the other 'B' teams and the 'C' team 22nd out of 37 who finished the race (45 started).
It was a fine, sunny day in the park. Very gusty winds put paid to the Belgrave marquee, but there was a nice happy atmosphere with the runners camping on the grass.
A TEAM
Kristina concluding her long leg. Photo Graham Smith
Kristina Popadich led the team off on the difficult long first leg. The majority of the fastest long legs of the day were set on this leg. Kristina has been carefully nursing her injury prone legs and slowly building her fitness all winter and is now in excellent form. She brought the team home in 10th place with a very strong run.
With runners from other clubs coming in close together Felicity Harrison had several to chase on leg two. She brought the team up to 7th, coping well with the hills on this tough, undulating course.
The ever reliable Naomi Lenane continued the progression on leg three with a very similar time to Felicity, passing another runner, and the Belles were now up to 6th.
On leg four, the second of the two long stages, we welcomed Nadine Donegan to the team. She produced another very strong run to pick up another two places, now up to 4th.
By now, the gaps to the leading three teams were well over two minutes and the chance of a medal virtually impossible. Another Belle making her debut with the team was Penny Oliver on stage five. Penny had been a winner here in the past running for Coventry in the Midland relay, so knew the course and managed her isolated stage very well to increase the gap from the teams behind.
Nadine Donegan on her Belgrave - and Sutton Park - debut. Photo by Graham Smith
It was down to team captain Steph Hewitt to bring the team home in 4th place. Steph has been training well all winter and here it showed with the Belles’ fastest short stage of the day, just outside the top ten of all the teams in the country, and this just like Penny's, a completely solo run.
B TEAM
The Belles have such strong depth this year and many of this 'B' team might well have been in the 'A' team. Emily Bradley requested a long stage with that mile long down and back hill at the top of the course. She had an excellent run bringing the team home in 17th position.
Clemmie Cooper was in good form recently running a PB in the Podium 5km in Leicester. Here she ran a good leg in just over 19 minutes justifying her selection. Karen Xiang is also running very well, her leg was the fastest of the B team's short stages and she brought the team up to 13th place.
It was in 2010 that Samantha Hudson dos Santos Figueira (Sammi Amend) first ran in this race for the club. She was always the ideal person to have in the team especially when they introduced the two long stages for women in 2015. Typically, this year she came to support the team just two weeks after finishing fourth in the Celtic Plate 100km race in Perth. Now fit and healthy after a difficult year, she got round in her usual determined manner.
Finally for the 'B' team, two talented runners, Zoe MacDonald and Anna Sharp who perhaps are not at their fittest but were still keen to take part. Zoe struggles to make regular training because of heavy work commitments and Anna came to the race straight after night duty at her hospital. However, very respectable legs from both brought the team up to 12th place at the finish, the second 'B' team in the race.
C TEAM
With just nineteen women agreeing to take part, it was always a gamble entering three teams of six. But apart from just one person dropping out due to illness, the teams held right up to the race. They made a very good start with Samantha Munday with heavy mileage in her legs finishing in 26th place on the first long leg. Emily Goff, an 800/1500m runner finding the distance and hills tough took over in second but ran very well maintaining that position.
Lydia Gallyer-Barnett ran a very similar time in third moving the team up a couple of places. Lydia also ran very well and remarked afterwards how she loved the venue and the course, so much better than Milton Keynes, and so like Richmond Park where she loves to run.
Georgia Holden will be running the Boston Marathon later in April but was happy to take part and have a last hard workout. Gaps had become huge at this point, so it was very much a solo run maintaining the Belles position. Another very good run.
Finally, a huge thank you to Lara Mangan and Marianna Patat for coming along and completing the team. They had both done the same at Milton Keynes in the Southern 6-Stage two weeks earlier. They not only enjoyed the day but, despite the hills, Marianna confessed to running a PB for 5km on her way round the short stage course. Together they brought the team home in 22nd place, beaten by only one other 'B' tram, a tremendous achievement.
A decade and more ago, many Belgravians came to support the teams at this iconic event. Of those older members only Leo Coy and John Stowe were there. But Belgrave now have a new set of supporters and helpers, Sammi's new husband Victor and several other partners plus non running team members Henry Hart, Emily Lowery and Kate Axford. It really was a wonderful day.
HISTORICAL NOTE
Women were first included in this race in the year 2000, but the Belles didn't send a team until 2002. That year when far fewer teams entered they finished in 5th place with a team including Birhan Dagne. Here is their record over the past decade:
2014 9th, 2015 8th, 2016 8th, 2017 15th, 2018 incomplete team, 2019 8th, 2020 and 2021 no race because of Covid, 2022 no team, 2023 6th, 2024 4th.
RESULTS
TVH 2:12:46, 2. Leeds 2:13:01, 3. Sale 2:13;14, 4. Belgrave 'A' 2:15: 43, ...12. Belgrave 'B' 2:23:32, 22. Belgrave 'C' 2:33:38
Belgrave 'A': 1. K. Popadich (10) 31:01, 2. F. Harrison (7) 18:23, 3. N. Lenane (6) 18:29, 4. N. Donegan (4) 31:09, 4. P. Oliver (4) 18:36, 6. S. Hewitt (4) 18:05.
Belgrave 'B': 1. E. Bradley (17) 32:36, 2. C. Cooper (16) 19.10, 3. K. Xiang (13) 18:44, 4. S. Hudson dos Santos Figueira (17) 35:01, 5. Z. MacDonald (16) 19:04, 6. A. Sharp (13) 18:58.
Belgrave 'C': 1. S. Munday (26) 34:39, 2. E. Goff (26) 20:34, 3. L. Gallyer-Barnett (24) 20:36, 4. G. Holden (24) 34:55, 5. L. Mangan (23) 21:39, 6. M. Patat (22) 21:16.
(Birchfield in 10th were disqualified so Belles 'B' and 'C' move up one place.)
Photos above by Graham Smith, photos below by Steve Gardner
